Fleetwood boss delighted as Sowerby seizes chance

Uwe Rosler praised Jack Sowerby on a match-winning performance against Chesterfield which fired Fleetwood into the third round of the Checkatrade Trophy and pushed him into contention for Saturday’s visit to league leaders Wigan.

Impressive Sowerby scored the opening goal in last night’s 2-0 win as Town strolled past the League Two Spireites to clinch a place in Friday’s 3pm draw.

Head coach Rosler said: “This competition is very important for our club because it is a chance for our younger players to play proper competitive football, especially when our development squad is not playing any league football.

“You see how Jack used that opportunity to make a name for himself and (come into) consideration for more first-team action.

“The way we started was excellent. I saw two front players who really worked hard off the ball and that makes me very happy – that energy spread across the whole team.

“We played very good counter-attacking football and the way we used Jack Sowerby in that number 10 role was very good. We should have been comfortably out of sight at half-time.

“I felt it was dangerous to only be 1-0 up at half-time. In the second half they put more experienced players in their team and we took one or two out because we are thinking about Saturday.

“We didn’t have enough of the ball but we had a great mentality and that was us at our best. We did not allow them anything and they did not have a chance in the second half.”

Chesterfield ended the game with 10 men and with defender Lawrence Maguire in goal after keeper Joe Anyon had gone off with an arm injury.

Alex Reid took full advantage to seal Town’s win with his first goal for the club, 11 months after joining from non-league Rushall Olympic.

Reid got the nod due to an injury to Ashley Nadesan and Rosler added: “I thought Alex’s loan spell at Wrexham was not the most successful. He came back and Ashley was in front of him but Alex used his chance really well. I thought he was mobile, good work rate, physically strong and he scored a great goal.”